


in the dark and out of harm

by alasse



Category: Generation Kill
Genre: M/M, Originally Posted on LiveJournal
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-08-05
Updated: 2014-08-05
Packaged: 2018-02-11 20:03:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,478
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2081355
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/alasse/pseuds/alasse
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Brad comes back from deployment. Nate makes sure he comes <i>home</i>.</p>
            </blockquote>





	in the dark and out of harm

**Author's Note:**

> Originally posted on lj in 2011, [here](http://alasse.livejournal.com/133358.html). Title from _Summertime_ by My Chemical Romance.

Brad was back tonight.

He was getting in to Quantico, and Nate wanted nothing more than to be there with the families, the girlfriends, the wives -- he wanted to see Brad the second he touched safe ground, wanted to kiss him until he knew beyond shadow of a doubt he was okay.

But they didn’t do things that way. 

Even with DADT almost gone, Nate was Brad’s former CO, and neither of them wanted to risk the shit-storm their relationship could provoke while Brad was still in the Corps. Maybe, if he took his twenty… Nate shook himself out of _that_ particular line of thought. The important people knew, and that was more than enough. Still, he forced himself to focus on the article he was reading; the only way to stop himself from grabbing the keys and driving to the base, damn the consequences, was keeping busy.

+

Nate jolted awake when he felt a soft kiss brush the back of his neck. _Brad_. He immediately relaxed, eased back into Brad’s hands on his shoulders, closed his eyes with a smile. Brad was home.

“Losing your reflexes, Fick? Never thought I’d see the day.”

“Well, civilian life gets to everyone in the end. And it wouldn’t have been much of a welcome back if I’d knocked you out before I realized who you were,” Nate pointed out reasonably.

Brad spun his chair around. “Excuses, excuses,” he breathed out, before leaning down to give Nate a deep kiss. 

Nate kissed back, but allowed Brad to keep control. He had to keep himself available, and let Brad dictate the tone of his first few hours home.

Brad leaned back from the kiss, drinking Nate in with his eyes. It was never less intense, to be on the receiving end of that look -- full of love and lust and fondness mixed together, and always, inevitably, a degree of surprise that Nate was here. That he hadn’t left.

“I’m going to take a shower, and you really need to get to bed. Sleeping on top of your desk always makes you impossible in the morning,” Brad said, giving Nate one more kiss before grabbing his duffel from the floor and heading to the bedroom.

Nate let out a deep breath, allowed himself a moment of immense relief over the fact that Brad was here, whole, and followed.

He was almost completely asleep when he felt Brad settle next to him in bed, press himself against Nate’s back like he’d never left.

+

Nate woke up at six in the morning, like clockwork.

He was tempted to stay curled up underneath Brad’s arm and go back to sleep, but today wasn’t the day for hours and hours of sleepy, hazy sex -- that came tomorrow, maybe, or the day after. 

Today, Brad needed to sleep for more than an hour straight, he needed his body to reacquaint itself with safety.

So Nate got up and went for his usual morning run, grabbed the paper from the vendor in the corner, and indulged himself with his favorite pastry from the bakery a couple of blocks away from their apartment: a sinfully good _pain au chocolat_. He grabbed a couple of _madeleines_ , too, which were Brad’s favorite, even if he refused to admit it. 

“Morning, Nate,” said Maria. 

“Morning,” Nate replied. He wondered if being known by name by every single person who worked at the bakery meant he couldn’t call it an indulgence anymore -- perhaps a habit was more accurate. 

“Brad’s home?” Maria asked, after ringing up the _madeleines_. When Nate nodded, she smiled. “Say hi to him from me.”

“Will do. I’m sure he’ll be out with me tomorrow, anyway.” He paused. “Or the day after.”

Maria burst out laughing. “Yeah, I’m sure you guys have quite a bit of catching up to do.”

Nate shrugged, but couldn’t help the grin he was sure was lighting up his face. 

Once he was back in the apartment, he moved around as quietly as possible. Brad always told him not to bother, but, then again, Brad had just come back from a seven month deployment and if Nate wanted to be quiet and let him sleep peacefully, Brad could just fucking deal with it.

He settled down in the kitchen with his pastry and a cup of coffee from the insane contraption Rudy had bought for him (them) and which Ray had set up to work automatically since, “Jesus, LT, if you’re going to wake up at a fucking insane hour even when you don’t have to, you should have freshly brewed November Juliet.” Nate was pretty sure Ray would show up eventually to see Brad, maybe dragging Walt along, but they’d get a suitably verbose and profane voicemail in advance. Hopefully. 

After finishing with the paper, Nate got back to the articles he’d been reading last night, making a couple of annotations here and there. 

It was a little after noon by the time he heard Brad moving around in the bedroom -- putting things away, taking another shower, calling his mom. Nate left him to it, Brad would come to him when he was ready. He was hungry, though, and Brad probably would be, too, so he set his papers aside and threw together a big salad and a few sandwiches.

He took his lunch to the living room and settled in front of the TV, switching sporadically between CSPAN and BBC News. About fifteen minutes later, Brad sat down next to him, plate loaded with salad and two sandwiches. Nate didn’t say anything. They’d learnt, both of them, that words got lost on the first day. He set his empty plate down and leaned back, resting against Brad’s side, and he felt the tension leave Brad’s body.

After Brad finished eating, he hunted down his laptop, the papers Nate left in the kitchen, and went right back to the couch, nudging Nate until he was on one side and Brad was on the other, feet resting on Nate’s lap. They stayed like that for most of the day.

+

They had steaks for dinner -- it was Brad’s turn to cook, and he was an expert at grilling and not much else.

“You have to go in to work tomorrow?” Brad asked, cutting his steak into pieces methodically.

“No. I think if I even try, Lisa will chase me out with a SAW,” Nate replied, rolling his eyes. “She insisted I stay home for at least three days and give you a proper welcome. I think she likes you better than me.”

Brad grinned. “I do have a certain irresistible charm.”

“Speaking of irresistible charm, Maria from the bakery says hi. She guessed you were home because I bought _madeleines_. I think it’s time to give up and admit you love them, Brad.”

“A Marine never surrenders.”

Nate raised his eyebrows. “So you won’t mind if I eat them for dessert?” He laughed at Brad’s glare. “That’s what I thought.”

After a few moments of comfortable silence, Brad cleared his throat. “When I got in to base last night I was reminded that my twenty’s coming up. I- I’m not sure what to do, yet.”

Nate considered Brad for a moment before speaking. “Well, you’ve got a little time to figure it out. Don’t rush into a decision. And whatever you choose, I’m behind you, Brad. You know that.”

“I do know. But I - we’re together, Nate. I won’t make this decision by myself. What do you want?”

“You,” Nate answered honestly. “Every day or every six months, Brad. I just want you.”

Brad looked at Nate, eyes bright, and nodded.

+

They went back to the living room after dinner. Brad put on Top Gear and Nate attempted to make some headway in his backlog of non-work related reading. A couple of hours later, Nate glanced up from his book to see Brad dead asleep.

He shook his head fondly and woke him up, herding him into the bedroom with a hand behind his back. Brad took off his clothes on auto-pilot, slipping into bed once he was down to his briefs. Nate locked the door, set the alarm and turned off the TV and the lights before taking off his own clothes and brushing his teeth. 

The second he slid into the bed, Brad’s arm came around his waist, dragging him close to brush a kiss on his shoulder. Nate squeezed Brad’s hand with his and drifted to sleep.

In the end, whether Brad took his twenty and found a job in Quantico or Langley, or went back to Afghanistan, the only thing that really mattered was that Brad could trust, after all these years of stolen days and weeks, after break-ups and reunions, that Nate was sticking around. And Nate could trust Brad to come back to him -- he could trust Brad to come home.


End file.
